Halbrust

Recipes 

Unless you need your carboy let it stay where it is! You want to age the mead for at least six months, and aging in the carboy is better than in the bottle (see: bulk aging)

Peppers16

Recipes 

Am I right in thinking that if you use certain fruits without pectin enzyme, there'll be a degree of cloudiness that will never clear, due to pectin proteins?

keesh

Recipes 

Unless you heat it, probably not, but I am no expert.

Also, pectins are carbohydrates, not proteins.

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Primary - 1 Gal JAOM, Belgian IPA, Pumpkin ale
Secondary - 5-way split Breakfast Imperial Stout, 2 Gal Traditional mead
Bottled - Kolsch, Pliny the Younger clone, Centennial Blonde, Alpine's Nelson clone, Apfelwein, QuicknDirty Cider
On deck - EdWort's Haus Pale

Peppers16

Recipes 

Oops, my bad.

sonofgrok

Recipes 

Can anyone post up a pic of a clear mead in the carboy? I am getting a little paranoid about one of my meads because I lost a lot in siphoning and it has a lot of head space in the carboy. It stopped bubbling almost completely when I transferred to the secondary and there is virtually no gas sitting in the airlock. I thought I might have a leak somewhere so I wrapped the top in some saran wrap. I just don't want it to oxidize while I am bulk ageing.

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funkadelicturkey

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sonofgrok

Recipes 

OK. That's pretty darn clear...

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jpcoote

Recipes 

Thanks for all the feed back on this post. I appreciate everyone's input.

I'm a little concerned at this point about the amount of headspace I have in the carboy, so I dont really want to leave the mead in there any longer than necessary. I tried using bentonite about a week and a half ago, but it still hasn't really cleared like it should. Anything wrong with bottling this early?

Golddiggie

Recipes 

Personally, I won't bottle any mead until it's at least 10-12 months old. Even then, it's only the lower ABV batches that will get bottled that soon. I have two 14% batches started last December (2011) in the first week of the month in fact, that won't be going to bottle until sometime next month at the earliest. I started another batch, designed to go to 16% that will get at least a full year. I'm looking at starting another batch this week that will also be going at least a full year before being bottled.

I still have a decent amount of my 2010 batches on hand. The traditional batches continue to improve with time. I'm hoping the blackberry melomel comes into it's own soon (also from November 2010).

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On Tap: Caramel Ale, Mocha Porter II, MO SMaSH IPA
Waiting/Carbonating: 12.5% Wee Honey II, 8.9% Old Ale, English Brown Ale, Lickah ESB, Mocha Porter II
Fermenting
K1: MO SMaSH IPA
K2:
K3: TripSix
On Deck: Caramel Ale
Aging:mead
Mead [bottled]:Oaked Wildflower Traditional, Mocha Madness, Blackberry Melomel, maple wine


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dummkauf

Recipes 

my latest trick for testing clearing on dark meads has been to use a laser pointer. If it hasn't cleared yet the red dot on the other side of the carboy will either be non-existant or dull. When the red dot comes out the other side of the carboy as bright as it is when just pointing it at the wall, it's probably clear

For light colored meads just use your eye balls.